The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1887-04-16

MARKETS IN MEXICO.
Fried Grasshoppers and Other Dellca-
eies Offered for Sale.


The articles seen in the market | will
give as they were written down during a
recent Sunday morning visit, says cores
pondent of the Detroit Free Press, writing
from the City of Mexico. One depart
ment is under cover, and is filled with as
sorted fruits, including oranges, lemons,
lines, pineapples, pears, peaches, plums,
bananas, ounces, alligator pears, cocoanuts
and many other tropical fruits, most of
which, owing to the high market tax and
costly transportation, sell at about New
York prices. The streets and sidewalks in
the vicinity are lined with men, women and
children, who are seated on the ground
surrounded by their market products,
which include, besides the ordinary vegeta-.
BILE market products, pigeons, unweaned
puppies, game chickens, pet lambs, battered
pigs and kids. Then there are heaps of
old iron, bird cages, cheap calico, brass
jewelry, boiled corn, potatoes, stewed pump
kins, beans, pepper, cooked and raw pigs
feet, sheep heads, hearts, lights and entrails.
There are also fints and finder for starting
fire, metal-mounted stones for grinding corn,
roots, bark and medical herbs, and dye
goods. Close by we see fried shrimps and
grasshoppers; both are cooked whole and
eaten so. The latter are about the size of
our common grasshopper, but are entirely
red, but as to looks would just as soon
try to 60 the common chopper" of the
north.
Besides these, the natives gather the
eggs of the swamp fly and boil them into
paste and eat them with salt, chill (Iepper)
and tortillas. The fly and its eggs are each
sold in the market. The former is some
what smaller than the house fly, while the
eggs are about the size and color of hay
seed. In fact, everything is eaten here
that the human stomach will digest, or
anything that is capable of being convert
ed into soup. Passing on we see women
selling flowers, incense, gum, cane and corn
stalks, cigarettes, cigar stumps, pulque, stale
bread, bnlrush mats, secondhand combs
and tooth brushes, Aztec images of gods,
sacred images and pictures, hot soup, ice
cream, toy collins, candy skulls, prayer
books, wax images, hairless blush poodle
dogs, cakes made for the dead, also others
made in the form Of saints and the angels.
Among this motley mixture there are to
be seen babies half naked and babies COM
pletely naked running at large. In fact,
numerous entire families of Mexican citi-
zens come and spend all day in the market
place. This is their home, and they usu-
ally bring all their domestic animals along.
The market presents continued bahhle, as
every Yender keeps up constant cry, in
which they give in Spanish and sometimes
in the Aztec or native Indian dialect the
kind, quality and price of all they have to
sell. Each stand has pole about eight feet
high, upon the top of which there is fiat
framework covered with bulrush mat
This is the only protection from sun and
rain, and under such shelter we find the
hash and soup stands.
In these popular eating stands every ar
ticle of food that will not scald or burn is
dished out by hand; for other things they
use large wooden and brass spoons. While
not otherwise engaged, these women are
hunting feas among their poodle dogs and
puppies, and combing their children's heads
for what they seldom fail to find. Then
there are scores of lepers or beggars sleep
ing and lounging about, gathering the YER
min from their filthy rags. Some of them
are playing lame, while others are covered
with sores which they pointedly exhibit,
but more often in place of sores are layers
of acquired filth Thus, with as few rags
as the law will permit, and as much filth
as they can live under, these beggars crowd
the market place, confront every class of
visitors, and expect to be paid for the ext
bition they present.